The late innings felt like last call at Yankee Stadium. ... Going all the way back to April, the Yankees haven't given anyone reason to believe they are a playoff team. ...

No, the karma hasn't been right all season. Maybe it has something to do with Joe Girardi, and the clenched-jaw vibe he gives off, maybe it doesn't. But these Yankees sure haven't responded to tough times the way they did for Joe Torre in recent years.

Recent years, John? You mean how well the Yankees finished in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007?

The Steinbrenner family and Jack Nicholson saw last night what a lot of other people have been looking at for a while: The end of the baseball world as a generation of Yankees know it. ... [T]he morgue-like Stadium [will] soon qualify as the world's largest funeral home and be littered with pinstriped coffins.

The thought of October has become preposterous. Here is why: It is hard to believe this team will even play significant games in September. ...

The Yankees are seven games out of the wild card, a number made more daunting because it is hard to identify anything the 2008 Yankees do well. ...

The Yanks are perilously close to being the $200 million Kansas City Royals, spending September thinking about next year. ... This Yankees offense mimics Hank Steinbrenner, more bluster than action. ... The 2008 season is like the Stadium: History.

The grand slam exploded like a gunshot Wednesday night, tearing out the guts of even the most naïve believers in the 2008 Yankees.

The eighth-inning bullet by Dustin Pedroia was like the opening scene of a documentary, many years from now, capturing the thud of finality to something once so special. The question for the Yankees is what starts next: a glorious renaissance or a painful fall from grace?

In the owner's box, Hank Steinbrenner was making his first appearance at Yankee Stadium since opening day. ... [A]s Pedroia rounded the bases, Steinbrenner hung his head. By the bottom of the inning, he was gone from his seat. ...

10 comments:

Another great Schadenfreude. My favorite part was the Hank picture - I'd wanted a shot of him during last night's game sinking in his seat, thinking of what blather he'd fling at the media, and then I wake up to a picture of him sinking in his seat and saying "they stunk". What more could I ask for?

Mr. Steinbrenner, welcome to Yankee Stadium. Is this your first time here? It is? Good. My name is Larry Luchhino, I'll show you around.

...Yes, it is too bad that the Stadium ownership changed just two days ago. The Red Sox came in brandishing weapons just like the early Americans did when they came over from England. They took this place by force, and there was nothing anybody could do about it. We've decided at the end of the season that we're going to tear this place down. Well, I mean, there is that new stadium almost complete across the street. Although we don't own it yet, we will very soon. We might even take it over just like we did here. Maybe before it even opens.

Not that it needs to be worse, of course. The prospect of missing the playoffs for the first time since 1993 is surely sitting poorly enough with the Yankees, their front office and their fans. But what makes this even worse is watching the Red Sox, and realizing how much better they are right now.

At everything.[...]

"Watching them, you see it," Johnny Damon said. "No one's over there trying to be the man. They know how important it is to get on base, extend the inning, and when they do that they're getting big hits. They've got some talented players over there -- guys who not only have good batting averages but have been able to drive in runs, score runs, drive an opposing pitching staff crazy ... there's no easy spot in that lineup."